Tulane University
Houston
Fundamentals Lift Tulane Men To Victory
Feb 4, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2003
HOUSTON, Texas - Tulane went back to fundamental basketball on Tuesday evning, using defense and free-throw shooting to steal a 65-58 road victory from the University of Houston in Conference USA men's basketball action at Hofheinz Pavilion.
Tulane (10-10, 3-4 C-USA), winners of three straight games, held Houston's two leading scorers to a combined 12 points while connecting on 14-of-16 second-half free throws in the victory.
"We wanted to do a good job on Owens and Truscott," Tulane head coach Shawn Finney said. "It was Wayne's job to stop Owens and we wanted to use a full team effort to hold down Truscott in the paint."
Andre Owens came into the game averaging 14.9 points per game and finished with four points as Wayne Tinsley draped him throughout the contest. Louis Truscott, who entered with 16.6 points and 12.8 rebounds per game, second in the nation, finished with eight points and 10 boards.
"My big thing was not letting him catch the ball," Tinsley said of his defensive effort. "I didn't want to let him get in a comfort zone."
"We needed a great defensive effort," Finney said. "And we had the best halfcourt defensive effort since I have been here."
Waitari Marsh led the Green Wave with 18 points, including the 1,000th of his career, which came on a fast break layup late in the second half, his final points of the game.
In addition to Marsh, sophomore Marcus Kinzer scored a season-high 12 points while Wayne Tinsley tallied 10.
Houston (6-12, 4-3) pulled within one at 40-39 with 12:06 to go on a Bryan Shelton three-pointer, however, Marsh found Tinsley on a fast break and the junior followed with a monster slam dunk to spark a 6-0 run, making it 46-39 with 10:03 remaining.
The Cougars pulled within four on three more occasions, the final one at 54-50 with 1:52 to go on a Truscott foul-line jumper.
However, over the final 1:38, the Green wave hit 9-of-10 foul shots, including two each from Tinsley, Kinzer and senior Byron Parker and three-of-four from Spann.
Spann closed out the scoring on a fast break layup with 21 seconds remaining to wrap up Tulane's first road victory of the season.
"We have five seniors on this team," Marsh said. "We talk every day; we don not want to see our last year go to waste."
Tulane is back in action on Saturday evening, playing at UAB at 7 p.m. in Birmingham. UAB, which lost to Tulane in New Orleans earlier this season, continues to lead the National Division of Conference USA with a 4-3 mark (tied with Houston).
